


just forget the world

by Lire_Casander



Series: watching everything from space [1]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mentions of Coma, Spoilers For S02E09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24268741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lire_Casander/pseuds/Lire_Casander
Summary: middle-of-the-night calls are never bearers of good news
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: watching everything from space [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810042
Comments: 8
Kudos: 76





	just forget the world

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: **malex - michael and maria broke up a while ago but michael didn't tell alex and now michael is hurt and alex runs in to rescue him, making him realize that he and forrest are over.** Please heed the warnings.
> 
> Title comes from _Chasing Cars_ by Snow Patrol.
> 
> Beta'ed by the always amazing [manesalex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manesalex). Thanks a lot for your help with this!

The call startles them both in the middle of the first night Forrest spends sleeping in Alex’s bed. Theyʼre wrapped in one another, Forrest draped all over Alex’s chest in a possessive claim while Alex’s arms surround Forrestʼs lithe frame, evenly breathing in synch, when the phone blares to life. 

“Wha—” Forrest slurs, pushing himself off Alex’s body while Alex reaches blindly for the device he left on the nightstand. 

“Manes,” Alex picks up, sleep evident in his voice. When he checks the digital clock next to the lamp, it blinks _2:58_ in bright green lights that blind him in the soft darkness of his bedroom. 

Itʼs Liz on the other side, frantic and scared, spouting nonsense about something or the other, technical words that Alex barely follows, until she begins saying that the aliens are hurt. That wakes Alex faster than anything, despite the ungodly hour. 

“What do you mean, they are hurt?” he repeats stupidly into the phone. 

That elicits a surprised groan from Forrest, who pushes himself up on one elbow, looking at him with concern. “Hurt?” he mouths. Alex nods before focusing his attention on Liz once again. 

“Where are they?” Alex asks in an even voice, trying to give any resemblance of calm when his insides are twisting. 

He almost misses Liz’s muffled reply, which comes through the speaker in a tiny thread of a voice, “Kyle’s got them in a secured ward at the hospital.”

“I’ll be there as soon as possible,” Alex promises, already kicking the covers and swinging his legs out of the bed, before he can realize what he’s doing. He hangs up the phone and looks over his shoulder to Forrest, who’s now mimicking his movements and getting out of the bed. “I have to go, but you should stay and sleep a bit. You have an early morning tomorrow.”

“So do you,” Forrest retaliates. He’s already bending down to pick his jeans from the spot on the floor where they fell during their activities from a few hours before. “Besides, it’s evident someone you care about is hurt; I suppose they’re at the hospital? There’s not way I’m letting you go there by yourself at fucking three in the morning.”

Alex feels a surge of affection for Forrest that doesn’t really tamper with the bubbling worry choking him from the inside. But as much as he wants Forrest to come with him, he doesn’t know what he’s going to find when he enters the secure hospital ward Kyle has set up for Michael, Max and Isobel. He shakes his head.

“I’ll call you when I reach the hospital and see what’s going on,” he promises. He latches the prosthesis closed around his stump and stands up on wobbly legs. “You stay here. I’ll come back as soon as possible. But one of us should get at least a little sleep.”

“Do you want _me_ ,” Forrest asks him with a raised eyebrow, “to stay at _your_ home while you’re gone?”

Alex stops at the implications behind his boyfriend’s words, and he has to force out a chuckle. “I trust you that much,” he assures Forrest, although he knows deep down that he’s not ready for that — actually he doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready for _anything_ with anyone — but this sounded like a start of sorts, allowing himself to have this little moment of peace amidst the chaos his life has become lately.

He’s been wrong all along.

“I’ll call, okay?” he promises again. “But now I have to go.”

“It’s Michael, isn’t it?” Forrest deadpans on his way back to the bed, his jeans still in his hand. “That’s why you’re rushing out, and why you don’t want me to be there for you. If it had been your father—”

“If it’d been my father, I would still have wanted to do it on my own,” Alex cuts him off. “Don’t you even think it’s because of Michael.”

“So it is,” Forrest sighs. “You have to learn to let go of him, Alex. Not that you should right _now_ ,” he quickly adds when Alex quirks an eyeborw at him, halfway through becoming angry. “Not when he’s at the hospital and you don’t know what happened. But at some point, you just have to move on.”

“I know,” Alex tells Forrest. He finishes getting dressed and leans in for a quick peck on the lips. “Will keep you updated.”

“You better,” Forrest warns him before getting back under the covers. There’s a creaking sound outside the closed door of the bedroom, and when Alex opens it, Buffy comes in scratching her paws on the wooden floors. “Here, pretty, Alex is leaving us,” Forrest mutters to his Beagle. “But, you and I, we’re going to wait for him.”

“Just don’t wait up,” Alex warns before closing the door at his back and exiting his own house, leaving behind his boyfriend and his dog in his bed.

The trip to the hospital is agonizing, while Alex has to stop at every single red traffic light in Roswell because he can’t afford to be halted by police officers when he’s on a top secret mission to find out what’s wrong with Max and Isobel and _Michael_.

Kyle is waiting for him outside the ER ward, his scrubs still in place as he leans back against the wall, close to the glass door’s entrance. He straightens up when he sees Alex parking his own car across the street — at almost three thirty in the morning there isn’t much traffic to compete with for a parking spot — and jumping out of the cabin frantically.

“What’s going on, Kyle?” he asks when he reaches his friend. 

“I don’t know,” Kyle admits as he ushers Alex into the hospital and through deserted hallways. “Liz called a couple of hours ago. She was with Max,” Kyle feigns gagging, eliciting a chuckle from Alex. “And suddenly Max blacked out and there was no way to wake him up. She was terrified.”

“I can imagine,” Alex says. Even if he knows about the connection the three aliens share, he still doesn’t see how it’s affecting Michael.

“Well, Isobel had dropped dead by the time I got Liz’s call, so it was just a matter of finding out about Michael,” Kyle keeps talking. “Sanders called me, I still don’t know how he got my number or how he knew he should call me of all people but—”

“Wait, wait, wait a second, Valenti,” Alex cuts him off, Kyle’s words beginning to sink in. “How come you know Isobel had already—Oh my,” he laughs awkwardly. “You were _with_ isobel!”

Kyle has the decency to blush. “That’s not the point here, _Manes_. The point here is that Michael had lost consciousness way before Isobel and Max. First Michael, then Isobel and then Max, around an hour after Isobel.”

“And they’re not waking up,” Alex says, the question lingering in his voice. “Do we know how long Michael was out of it before Sanders found him?”

“Actually,” Kyle stops in front of a closed door. Alex can hear muffled sounds at the other side, and he sighs. “Sanders had been trying to contact me for around two hours. I was, uh, preoccupied.”

“So I can see,” Alex chuckles. He’s glad his friend has found a little bit of happiness after whatever he had with Steph imploded on itself. “But seriously, Isobel?”

“Do you want me to tell you about what I think happened, or are you going to have a field day about Isobel and me instead?” Kyle pouts, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Don’t think for a minute I’m letting you go without explaining,” Alex jokes. He sobers up after a few seconds before whispering, weight shifting from one leg to the other. “What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know exactly,” Kyle explains. “Before you go in there, I want to warn you. None of them are responding to anything we’ve ever tried before. No serum, no treatments, nothing. We’re at a loss here. I’m not sure I can wake them up.”

“You’re giving up on them?”

Kyle shuffles awkwardly. “I’m not, but I can’t do more than I already have. That’s why Liz called you.”

“How long has it been?” Alex asks. He has just realized that Kyle never told him the real timeline of events, and he’s sure Kyle’s hiding something. “And why did Sanders call you instead of Maria? I’d have thought Michael would’ve been with her.”

“It’s been—” Kyle sighs. “Michael dropped around mid-afternoon.”

“That was _hours_ ago!” Alex complains. 

“You were on a date with Forrest,” Kyle tries to appease him. “I didn’t want to intrude!”

“Well, you did, in the end,” Alex sighs. “I just left Forrest in _my_ bed to come here, give me something to work on with!”

“You did _what_?” Kyle almost screeches, but Alex is saved from answering by the door opening a fraction and Liz’s head peeking out.

“Will you stop bickering and actually get inside?” she commands. “They’re—they’re deteriorating.”

Alex is moving before he can even register Liz’s words fully. When he enters the room, the first thing he sees is a row of three beds hooked to different colorless fluids, Max and Isobel propped against fluffy pillows, peace in their features. Michael, however, is balled up on his side, limbs twisted in what looks a painful lock. Alex rushes to his side, not even acknowledging Rosa who’s sitting beside Isobel or Sanders who’s standing next to a window. His body remembers the way Michael loves to be touched, and that’s what he does, leaning into his personal space, one finger caressing the rebel curl that always tends to fall onto his forehead. He’s even hotter than he usually is, Alex notices, a fever running and breaking through his skin. Alex wants to hold him tight and make it better.

He hates not knowing what’s going on, but he hates not being able to help him more. 

“What’s wrong with you, Michael?” he asks softly. “What happened? What were you doing?”

He takes in Michael’s looks — the sweaty skin, the rumpled clothes, the way his fingers are crooked around something that glows suspiciously like the spaceship piece Alex found hidden in the bunker’s wall. “Hey, do you know what’s that?” he questions, lifting his head to meet Kyle’s gaze. “That thing he’s holding onto for dear life?”

Kyle rushes to Michael’s side and checks that Alex is telling the truth. He frowns, confused. “How did you—”

“You’ve had them here for _hours_ and didn’t even think about checking them out to see if something was out of the ordinary?” Alex can feel his temper shifting, and he really doesn’t want to lose it, but he’s watched Michael in pain so many times throughout the years he can recognize it with his eyes closed and this — this weakened version of the Michael Guerin he loves — is in so much pain, physical and psychological, that Alex felt it from outside the room. 

“Listen, Alex—”

“Don’t you _’listen, Alex’_ to me,” Alex finally explodes. “Honestly, I’d have thought better of you two, such a renowned researcher _and_ surgeon! And you didn’t even notice that Michael has been clutching some sort of alien piece in his hand and you didn’t even call Maria and—”

“I get you’re upset we didn’t call you sooner,” Liz tries to intervene. “But why would we call Maria?”

“Because she’s his girlfriend?” Alex exclaims, hands lifted up in the air. “You’re here for Max, and Kyle is, well, Kyle is here—”

“As a doctor,” Kyle pipes in with a quiver in his voice.

“And Michael has Sanders, but where’s Maria?”

“I will forgive you for forgetting about me,” Rosa tries to joke, but Alex is having none of this.

He’s left Forrest back at his home, underneath his covers, half naked, to come here by Michael’s hospital bedside. _What was I thinking?_ he chastises himself. “You got me out of a perfectly fine romantic night with my own _boyfriend_ to come here, and you hadn’t even seen that piece. What were you waiting for? For me to save the day like I always do?”

“You’re our best shot at trying to break through to Michael!” Kyle points out. “Nothing we’ve tried has worked so far, so we thought—”

“You thought of me as your last resort? Well, obviously not the last, because you haven’t even bothered to call Maria! What, you didn’t want to worry her in the middle of the night?”

“Michael and Maria broke up weeks ago,” Liz tells him. “She said his heart wasn’t in it, and she was right. Michael was hiding behind _easy_ for so long.”

“Stop it right now,” Alex almost bellows. He’s feeling something growing inside of him, some sort of feeling that threatens to take over him. “Michael was happy with Maria.”

“The same way you’re happy with Forrest?” Rosa barks out. “Stop this bullshit right now. Michael and Maria are broken up, and you have your own boyfriend back at your house. Why are you here, then?”

Alex stops for a second, his heart racing as though he’s just run a marathon. That’s the million dollar question, he thinks to himself, the reason why he always feels compelled to rush to Michael’s side whenever he’s in trouble — the reason why he left everything and went to talk to him outside the Wild Pony at midnight the day Michael found out about his true origins. 

He’s been a fool all along. And worst of it all, he’s been leading Forrest on in the hopes that he might feel for Forrest half a fraction of what he feels for Michael.

Michael, who’s now single and apparently in a Sleeping Beauty kind-of state due to some sort of alien tech that has brought Isobel and Max down with it.

Michael, who’s been hiding the fact that he hasn’t been dating Maria for a few weeks now, every time they have gathered together for some alien related issue. 

Michael, who’s always been the magnet around which Alex’s world revolves.

“I don’t know,” he settles for saying, earning a scoff from Rosa.

“Keep telling yourself that, Alejandro.”

“It’s the truth.”

“No, it isn’t,” Rosa insists. Everyone else has fallen silent as they bicker back and forth. “It’s okay if you’re not ready to admit it yet. There’s been so much grief between you, and it’s okay to not be sure. Just, don’t go around breaking hearts. It’s bad manners.”

Alex sighs. He doesn’t say anything. Instead, he sits down on a chair by Michael’s bed and tries to pry the shining object out of his fingers. He doesn’t succeed, and he keeps going at it, almost frantically, losing his nerves when he can’t open Michael’s hand.

“Hey, kid,” Sanders tells him in a soft voice. Alex doesn’t have to look up to know everyone is zeroing in on him — he doesn’t _want_ to see pity on their eyes. “He’s going to be fine. This kid always falls on his feet.”

Alex lets out a sob he hadn’t known he’d been holding back, and allows his head to fall next to Michael’s hand, fingertips almost grazing the scars on Alex’s forehead. 

It’s hours later, when the sun has come out and Liz is on her way to finding a solution for their aliens and Kyle’s out there trying to act like a normal doctor, when Rosa has finally dozed off in her uncomfortable chair and Sanders has left under the pretense of taking care of the junkyard all the while wiping at his eyes, that Alex realizes he hasn’t called Forrest.

He doesn’t think he will.


End file.
